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Porsche or Aston Martin - now you can decide

Great Escape Classic Car Hire is helping motoring fans live out their fantasies with two further additions to its UK classic and modern classic car hire fleet. The company has added a 1982 ice white Porsche 911, complete with iconic 'whale tale', and a beautiful gunmetal metallic Aston Martin DB9 Volante supercar.The new self drive hire cars are available for rental from Great Escape's Worcestershire base on the edge of the Cotswolds. This is a great starting point for exploring the Cotswolds, Welsh Borders, Shropshire hills or Forest of Dean. The Porsche 911 and Aston Martin DB9 can be rented by the day or weekend and are suitable for weddings - on a self drive or chauffeur hire basis - or for a great day out to create a weekend break or celebrate a special birthday or anniversary.The new Porsche 911 complements Great Escape's existing 1967 Porsche 911 in Suffolk. It is a 1982 3.2 litre Carrera in ice white with tan interior and five speed manual gearbox. It has seating for two adults and two children.The Aston Martin DB9 Volante is a very high quality convertible fitted with a power hood, automatic gearbox - with paddle shifts - and 6 litre V12 engine. The gunmetal grey paintwork is complemented by a burgundy leather interior."These are two fantastic cars that will suit enthusiasts as well as anyone who just wants a great car for the weekend," explains Graham Eason of Great Escape. "They join or Worcestershire fleet, which is ideally located for visiting some great and scenic places and accessible from London, Birmingham and Manchester."Both cars are backed by Great Escape's comprehensive hire package. This includes a full 24 hours use for every day booked, insurance for 1 driver and, AA breakdown cover. The Porsche is available with unlimited mileage and the Aston Martin price includes 150 miles per day.View external link

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When I set up Great Escape Cars it was all about a classic car version of conventional car hire. So in place of a Ford Mondeo for 24 hr periods you got a Jaguar E Type or Jensen Interceptor. Lots of companies started doing this. And for many years it seemed to work.

Except, quite frankly, it didn't. There are now far fewer companies offering classic car hire and, as my hairline attests, there is one simple reason. It is hard and stressful. Most customers rent a classic car to celebrate a special birthday, a wedding or an anniversary. And, most of the time, they have a great time. But some of the time they don't because however well you maintain a classic car and however much money you spend on them, they are old cars with old car woes. And most of these old cars were never much cop when they were new.

The place where a celebration and an unreliable classic car meet is not necessarily a stress-free environment.

Hiring out old cars has given me the opportunity to drive and own a lot of classics I've always admired. Sadly, not all have lived up to expectations. Here are the ones that prove you should never meet your heroes...

1. Porsche 928
I've never been a Porsche person, but I liked the 928 until I owned one. It should work for me as it ticks so many boxes - big warbly V8, GT pretensions, decent handling and lots of creature comforts.

And in truth, it is all those things. But also, frankly, dull. Unless you drive very, very fast or are a very, very good driver you'll never get anywhere near the 928's limits on public roads. That shouldn't stop it being thrilling, yet it does - the car is so competent that all enjoyment is dialled out. It flatters, it goes round corners quickly, but none of it is exciting. It just feels too big, too unwieldy and too heavy.

I have a RS6, which sort of tries to pull off the same trick. Except it does so without feeling dull and with…

Car manufacturers have a penchant for doing odd things. Of course, they often don't start out as odd things, but on an alarmingly regular basis, they end up that way. British Leyland is the Grand Master, the Numero Uno, of snatching oddness from the grasp of convention, giving us the Allegro, the Princess and the Maxi. These were all odd cars, but ones you can just about see groups of senior managers convincing themselves of in endless meetings. Which is generally how, with a healthy dose of money, odd things come about.

And so it was with the Lancia Trevi, a rational solution with an odd outcome. And our new Project Car. We've bought one of the handful of remaining Trevis - there are either 2 or 6 in the UK, depending on who you believe - with plans to restore it to its former glory.

The Trevi is odd in the way that Grayson Perry is odd - it's deliberate and knowing, unlike the Allegro, which was neither of those things. Also unlike the Allegro, the Trevi was meant …